Use of the Central Square in Tirana During One Century of Political

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Planning Perspectives Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rppe20 Urban design, ideology, and power: use of the central square in Tirana during one century of political transformations Dorina Pojania a Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Department of Urbanism, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5030, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands Published online: 09 Apr 2014.

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To cite this article: Dorina Pojani (2015) Urban design, ideology, and power: use of the central square in Tirana during one century of political transformations, Planning Perspectives, 30:1, 67-94, DOI: 10.1080/02665433.2014.896747 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02665433.2014.896747

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Urban design, ideology, and power: use of the central square in Tirana during one century of political transformations ∗ Dorina Pojani

Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Department of Urbanism, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5030, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands (Received 14 February 2013; ﬁnal version received 8 January 2014)

This article recounts the history of urban design in the centre of Tirana, the capital of Albania, during ﬁve political periods (Ottoman Empire, Italian domination, communist regime, post- communist anarchy, and Western-style planning). Starting in the 1910s, successive governments have imposed their urban design visions for a grand city centre and tried to erase the built heritage of their predecessors, thus creating an eclectic space. In the post- communist era, the city government has made attempts to develop a new grand vision for its use but has met with failure. The author argues that the reasons for this outcome lay in the contemporary nature of the state, as well as the nature of development in a market economy. Keywords: city centres; public space; monumentality; totalitarianism; Tirana; Albania

Introduction By European standards, Tirana is a relatively young city. When it became the capital of Albania in 1920, it was a small town of 17,000 inhabitants. Today, it is a metropolis of nearly one million inhabitants. Within a century, Tirana has experienced the rise and demise of the Ottoman Empire, fascism, and communism, and (since 1990) the rise of consumerism. This article is about the transformation of its centre, which has been remade several times to mirror the transformations that occurred in Albanian politics and society.1 Following Albania’s independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912, subsequent totalitarian governments, each bringing a new ideology and a new set of rules, imposed their grand

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 urban design visions on Tirana’s central square and main boulevard and tried to erase the heritage of their predecessors. Each totalitarian regime succeeded in leaving its mark, but the grand visions of the new democratic regime have been largely unaccomplished. The result is an eclectic and unfinished space that comprises an assortment of layers, styles, and iconographies from different eras, and a perpetual flow of traffic. In the last decade, the city government has made attempts to develop a new grand vision for the use of the city centre. However, these visions, based on an engrained tradition of central planning by an all-powerful government and a potent nostalgia about the past role of the centre, have met with failure. This failure is the outcome of the contemporary nature of the state, as well as the nature of spatial arrangements in a market economy. None of the post-communist governments has been able to exercise definitive control and affirm its power by bringing

∗Email: [email protected]

# 2014 Taylor & Francis 68 D. Pojani

a workable vision and resources to readapt the centre to fulfil an attractive role in the new context in which it must function. A pluralistic e´lite, which replaced the monolithic powers of the past eras, is inept at crafting a new collective meaning, to which contemporary society can anchor its identity in flux. While the centre fits the needs of totalitarian regimes, it is out of place with the logic and the use of centrally located space in a market economy. Now, urban uses of space are dominated by inhabitants uninterested in political demonstrations and parades, which require purposely built large plazas and wide avenues. Private developers have taken over the role of the state in creating public life outside the city’s central square. In the time-honoured tradition of many Southern European cities, the defining character of these new communal spaces is a combination of strol- ling, consumerism, intimacy, and so-called ‘third places’ (cafe´s, bars, clubs, and the like) accommodated in narrow streets, back alleys, and refurbished courtyards. By contrast, the centre is a sterile space. The urban planning and design of the centre of Tirana can be divided into three periods: Italian ‘protectorate’ (1920s–1945), communist police state (1945–1990), and pluralistic market economy (1990 to the present). While the current academic literature on the design of the centre is limited, debates on this issue abound in the media, particularly in newspapers, TV, and the Internet. Numerous newspaper and magazine articles, as well as a few design reports, written between 2002 and 2012 by Albanian and foreign architects, designers, journalists, and political analysts, were identified and pieced together to reconstruct the public discourse related to Tirana’s centre (Table 1).2

The centre of Tirana Italian efforts to Westernize the centre In 1912, Albania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire after ﬁve centuries of domination, during which it had absorbed Ottoman culture (Figure 1). Eight years later, Tirana, which was a small town with 17,000 inhabitants and an area of 3 square kilometres, became its capital. Several commentators described it as little more than ‘a big village’.3 The town centre consisted of a lively bazaar of two or three hectares that dated from the 1700s, in which most stores were clustered. A description is provided by an Italian geographer

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 in 1941, who notes that the bazaar had changed little since Ottoman times:

[t]he bazaar, which makes up the heart of the city, is one of a kind ...A maze of streets and paths, ﬂanked by plain cottages, often single-storey, with a shop opening on the street and a backroom serving as storage and workshop. Tiny shops next to each other, in two rows on every street, over the entire quarter.4

Landmarks in the centre included a very small mosque and a clock tower, which were built in 1789 and 1830, respectively. The residential neighbourhoods that surrounded the centre, especially in the east and northeast, were created piecemeal in a typical Muslim vernacular style. The main roads radiated from the bazaar all the way out of town.5 The regime of the newly independent state wished to transform the town into a Western European capital based on professional concepts and plans. Austrian consultants, who were hired in 1923, prepared a plan to widen and straighten urban roads and ‘rationalize’ the Planning Perspectives 69

Table 1. Empirical research. Year Article/report 2002 de Campo, Francesca. “Tirana Rinasce.” Nel Blu, November. 2003 Arosio, Enrico. “Tirana Lumie`re.” Klan, September 25. 2003 Jano, Agron. “Pe¨r Qe¨ndre¨n e Tirane¨s dhe Planin Rregullues te¨Saj.” Gazeta Shqiptare, August 2003. 2003 Ke¨lliçi, Ermal. “Qe¨ndra e Tirane¨s dhe Historia.” Gazeta Shqiptare, July 8. 2003 Klosi, Ardian. “Jeruzalemi Yne¨.” Shekulli, February 2. 2003 Plasari, Aurel. “Replike¨me Dr. Klosin: Nde¨rtimi i Kishave ne¨Qe¨nde¨r te¨ Tirane¨s.” Shekulli, February 25. 2003 Vlahou, Evi. “Tirana: EkeıÓ´ pou Ta O´ neira TiS Nto´ras E´ ginan Pragmatiko´tiTa.” BHMagazino 146, July 27. 2004 Agalliu, Lorjan. “Maketi i Franceze¨ve dhe ‘Ule¨rima’ e Edvard Munch.” Tema, May 6. 2004 Architecture Studio. “A New Master Plan for Tirana City Centre.” City of Tirana, report. 2004 Cuyvers, Wim. “Tirana – Mercedes, Houses and Rubbish.” Archis 4: 39–43. 2004 Fevziu, Blendi. “Tirana mes Brasinit dhe Parisit.” Korrieri, February 25. 2004 Jano, Agron. “Qendra e Re e Tirane¨s, Dobia e nje¨Projekti.” Shekulli, April 19. 2004 Lubonja, Fatos. “Tirana si Qytet i Qytetare¨ve dhe Kryeqytet i Pushtetare¨ve.” Korrieri, February 24. 2004 Rama, Edi. “Nje¨Projekt i Forte¨ne¨ Dy Gjuhe¨.” Shekulli, February 22. 2004 Sopoti, Ilir. “Spekulimi Urbanistik pe¨r Qendre¨n e Tirane¨s.” Tema, April 25. 2004 Velo, Maks. “Qendra e Re e Tirane¨s, Zgjidhja meÖptimale.” Korrieri, April 21. 2005 Baze, Mero. “Rreziqet si Gazetar dhe si Urbanist ne¨n Hijen e ‘Ciklopit’ te¨Tirane¨s.” Tema, January 27. 2005 Biçoku, Arben. “Qikllopi dhe ‘Intelektuali.’” Shekulli, January 22. 2005 Boeri, Stefano. “Tirana alla Bataglia del Colore.” La Repubblica, July 3. 2005 Kramer, Jane. “Painting the Town: How Edi Rama Reinvented Albanian Politics.” New Yorker, June 27. 2005 Llonçari, Xhelal. “Tirana dhe Debati pe¨r Arkitekture¨n!” Korrieri, February 9. 2005 Lubonja, Fatos. “Disa Mendime mbi Qikllopin e Tirane¨s.” Korrieri, January 21. 2005 Ndreca, Ardian. “Kryeqyteti i She¨mtimit.” 55, September 18.

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 2006 Fink, Bill. “Not Such a Joke: Accidentally Enjoying Albania.” San Francisco Chronicle, October 1. 2006 Mansfield, Paul. “Albania Steps in From the Cold.” The Observer, April 9. 2006 Winner, Christopher P. “Tirana Gets Real.” The American, June 1. 2008 51N4E. “Scanderbeg Square design concept.” City of Tirana: report. 2008 Faja, Enver. “Projekti Belg i Qendre¨s se¨ Tirane¨s, njeÄtentat Kunde¨r Qytetit.” Tema, May 23. 2008 Greca, Adelina and Valbona Koçi. “Tirana is now a Step Closer to a New European City.” City of Tirana, report. 2008 Grosi, Petrika. “Kolaneci: Si e Nde¨rtuam Piramide¨n pe¨r Enverin.” Albania, October 4. 2008 Lila, Oliverta, a. “Bulevardi i Tirane¨s, Pasuri Kulturore e Europe¨s.” Gazeta Shqiptare, July 9. 2008 Lila, Oliverta, b. “Tirana po Shkate¨rron Simbolet e Arkitekture¨s.” Gazeta Shqiptare, October 24.

(Continued) 70 D. Pojani

Table 1. (Continued). Year Article/report 2010 Newspaper Staff Writer. “Berisha: Sheshi i Shqiptare¨ve, te¨Ruhet Identiteti i Tij.” BalkanWeb, April 9. 2010 Newspaper Staff Writer. “Ke¨shilltari i Kryeministrit Berisha pe¨r Territorin Flet pe¨r Konfliktin.” Shqip, April 11. 2010 Newspaper Staff Writer. “Rama Pe¨rdhunon Kujtese¨n Historike te¨Tirane¨s: Interviste¨me Fatos Lubonje¨n.” Koha Jone¨, April 27. 2010 Bogdani, Gert. “Kurthi i Rame¨s pe¨r Sheshin.” Standard, April 16. 2010 Bozdo, Eno. “Sheshi ‘Ske¨nderbej’ Pe¨rtej se¨Majte¨s e te¨ Djathte¨s.” Panorama, April 7. 2010 City of Tirana. “Rama: Sheshi ‘Ske¨nderbej’, SfideëPe¨rbashke¨t e te¨ Gjithe¨ve.” Lajmet e Ditarit, April 21. 2010 Dervishi, Kastriot. “Ç’mund teÏshte Qendra e Kryeqytetit te¨Shqipe¨rise¨? Historia e Sheshit ‘Ske¨nderbej.’” 55, April 26. 2010 Faja, Enver. “Nde¨rhyrja ne¨Sheshin ‘Ske¨nderbej’, njeÄtentat Kunde¨r Kryeqytetit.” 55, April 9. 2010 Fevziu, Blendi. “Projektuesit Belge¨: Çfareü Ofrojme¨Shqiptare¨ve ne¨ Qende¨r te¨ Kryeqytetit.” Panorama, April 13. 2010 Kadilli, Fatbardh. “Mediokriteti Monumental i Sheshit.” Korrieri, April 12. 2010 Kolevica, Petraq. “’Ske¨nderbej’, Sheshi qe¨Mban Historineë Nje¨Shteti.” Telegraf, May 17. 2010 Kuçi, Elis. “Tafaj: Sheshi ‘Ske¨nderbej, Pre e Interesave te¨Rame¨s.” Rilindja Demokratike, April 13. 2010 Lame, Artan. “Lamtumire¨Lulishjta Ime!” Shqip, April 26. 2010 Lubonja, Fatos. “Sheshi ‘Ske¨nderbej’ si Plaçke¨ Lufte.” Ekspres, April 18. 2010 Stefani, Andrea. “Berisha Kunde¨r ‘Ske¨nderbeut’ si Tursun Pasha.” Shqip, April 7. 2010 Stefani, Andrea. “Qeveri qe¨Dhunon edhe ‘Ske¨nderbeun’, edhe Kushtetute¨n.” Shqip, April 12. 2010 Tafaj, Arben. “Rama, mes ‘Rruge¨s se¨ Trete¨dhe ‘Neomesjetarizmit.’” Panorama, April 4. 2010 Vata, Arben. “Rama, Loja e Fundit me Nervat e Shqiptare¨ve.” Koha Jone¨, April 22. 2010 Xhaferri, Ferdinand. “Pse do Bllokojme¨Punimet.” Korrieri, April 12. 2010 Zaimi, Arbe¨r. “Fre¨ngjite¨, Belge¨t dhe Tirana qe¨Dua.” Shqip, April 17. 2011 51N4E. Double or Nothing. London: Architectural Association Publications. 2011 Baze, Mero. “Sheshi Ske¨nderbej, ose Çfare¨Dite¨Be¨je¨ Lulzim Basha.” Tema, November 25.

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 2011 Klosi, Ardian and Artan Lame. Piramida e Tirane¨s, e Hijshme, e Braktisur, e Rrezikuar. Tirana: Dudaj. 2011 Lame, Artan. “Ai dhe Ne.” Shqip, July 21. 2011 Lame, Artan. “Lamtumire¨Shesh e Ske¨nderbe!” Shqip, November 3. 2011 Lubonja, Fatos. “Dilemat e Sheshit ‘Ske¨nderbej’.” Panorama, November 30. 2011 Mullaj, Artan. “Sheshi dhe Leshi i Tirane¨s.” Shqip, December 5. 2011 Rama, Edi. “Projekti pe¨r Zemre¨n e Pe¨rtrire¨te¨ Kryeqytetit.” Shqip, November 9. 2011 Vehbiu, Ardian. “A Ka Qende¨r Tirana?” Shekulli, November 21. 2011 Ypi, Edison. “Pe¨rsheshi Ske¨nderbej.” Standard, May 5. 2012 Lekbello, Kesiana. “Tirana Kryeqytet ne¨1920 apo ne¨1931?” C, February 19. 2012 Tafaj, Arben. “Historia e Tirane¨s mes Hamende¨simeve e Propagande¨s.” Panorama, February 24. 2012 Velo, Maks. “Konkurset qe¨ Ndryshuan Tirane¨n.” Presentation at the University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy, May 14. Planning Perspectives 71 Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015

Figure 1. From top: (a) plan of Tirana in 1921; (b) aerial view of the ﬁrst nucleus; and (c) bazaar. Photos courtesy of the National Planning Archive.

design of the city.6 This approach was typical in South-eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediter- ranean between 1900 and World War II. In conjunction with nation-building projects, in opposition to the ‘oriental others’,7 urban projects, including comprehensive plans for the radical remodelling of the city, embellishment projects, and garden suburb designs, were drawn up for all major cities in the region. Urban aesthetic ideas (rationalistic conﬁguration, functional 72 D. Pojani

organization, and visual harmony) were adopted as a vehicle to consolidate new national identities, establish novel, nationally relevant urban forms, make art available to the urban masses, and regulate the citizenry. The past was considered undesirable. Generally, classicist design, with its strong streak of modernity, proved the most powerful instrument to reshape cities and overtly serve nationalistic and modernizing objectives.8 At the same time, capitals in Western Europe, North America, and Australia too saw a resurgence of interest in monumental styles used to imprint different types of authority and forge national identities (i.e. the Washing- ton Mall in Washington, DC, Canberra’s plan, or the BBC’s building in London).9 This type of capital had also been the dream of the Albanian intelligentsia in the late nineteenth century, who had organized the National Awakening movement against the Ottoman yoke. A leader of the movement described his vision:

[for the capital] we had better build a new city in the middle of Albania, on a healthy and beautiful site. This city, which we can call Skanderbegas,10 will be arranged in a most pleasant manner with wide and straight streets, with ﬁne houses, with squares, and everything necessary ...So this city will be unbound by the bad vices of old cities ...11

In 1926, an army official, Ahmet Zog, took power and proclaimed himself the King of Albania. His objective was to westernize Albanian society. A (non-practising) Muslim, he married a Catholic Hungarian princess in order to strengthen ties with christian Europe.12 In conjunction with his political efforts, he wanted to create a Western European capital city, which would reinforce the transformation. In order to implement his vision, Zog hired two renowned Roman architects for the redesign of the city centre, Armando Brasini and Florestano Di Fausto. Di Fausto had already worked overseas, in Libya, and had gained a reputation for crea- tive versatility, circumvention of fascist imperialism, passion for the building traditions and anthropological costumes of other peoples, and hybrid architecture.13 The Italian government helped with funds in order to extend its influence in the Western Balkans.14 Through a ‘Friend- ship Treaty’ and the debt contracted to implement the design, Albania effectively became an Italian protectorate.15 The Italian designs did not consist merely of a traslatio of pre-existing structures into a new urban context. In an autarchic vein, they rearranged buildings and space to reflect a different vision of society and political power. This line of thinking shaped many colonial cities in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, creating hybrid identities across the world (British-

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 Indian and French-Algerian). Colonial centres were laid out in large-scale, bombastic urban design schemes and public monuments. These were explicitly designed for prominent displays of national prestige and glory – for example, the Haussmannization process of Paris16 – and to demonstrate the racial superiority and modernity of colonizers, in contrast to the ‘primitive’ landscapes created by natives.17 (However, in some cases, as in French-controlled Casablanca, the colonies were used as a testing ground for innovative building practices, which were meant to be introduced to the imperial centre, if successful.18) In Tirana, unconcerned about the prominent Oriental character of the city, Brasini envisioned a baroque central isle, inspired by the St Peter piazza in Rome. He hoped to thus launch the capital into the European scene.19 His concept included a complex of six two-storey buildings for the ministries placed around an oval plaza with a sunken garden in the middle (to optically increase the height of the ministries). This complex, named Skanderbeg Square, after the ﬁfteenth-century Albanian hero, was built later but its shape was modiﬁed from oval to Planning Perspectives 73

hexagonal. A straight, wide, monumental boulevard (called Viale del Impero, inspired by the Roman cardo maximus concept), lined with other government buildings of the emerging capital, was planned to extend from the ministry plaza in the south direction.20 It was meant to symbolically separate the Eastern nucleus and the Western peripheries and exalt the symbols of power. Although criticized by the local press at the time as being alien to the city,21 the grand boulevard was eventually constructed but only a few of the proposed buildings along it were completed (Figure 2). According to some accounts, construction and coordination works of Italian ﬁrms in Tirana were carried out amid a climate of hostility and sabotage.22 A French architect, who visited Tirana at that time, made a remark that has become well known: ‘I have seen cities without boulevards, but I never saw a boulevard without a city!’23 When Italy occupied Albania at the beginning of World War II, Zog ﬂed the country, and the Italian government declared that Albania was part of the Italian empire. Then, the Mussolini government aimed to fully carry out the national and corporate policies that were cornerstones of fascist architecture and urban planning. Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015

Figure 2. Aerial view of the boulevard (top) and the ministry plaza (bottom). Photos courtesy of the National Planning Archive and Istituto Luce. 74 D. Pojani

As many autocratic leaders did before him, Mussolini saw architecture not only as a governing tool but, due to its potency and capacity for suggestion, also as an education medium and an accomplice in the process of totalitarization of society. In terms of architectural archetype, fascism adopted avant-garde rationalism, with the intention to liberate people from bonds to a traditional past, while at the same time forging a bond between people and the regime.24 Rationalist architecture had to have clear and understandable modern forms, but at the same time be able to resuscitate national pride and a sense of belonging (as opposed to internationalist socialist architecture), and constitute a reassuring icon against the anguish accompanying mod- ernism. Hence the frequent use of porticoes, arches, and colonnades. Within Italy, Mussolini subjected the historic centre of the Eternal City to spectacular demolitions with the purpose of tearing away the nineteenth-century urban tissue associated with the liberal monarchy:25 Mar- cello Piacentini, the fascist architect par excellence, was nicknamed The Disemboweler. Fascist architecture was declared to be the legitimate heir of ancient Roman architecture – assumed to be the carrier of universal values – and entitled to exercise an artistic primacy over all other nations.26 Italian colonial architects and planners operating overseas, who wanted to build the image of fascist culture, tried in different ways to assert this centralized, integrated model while entering into a dialogue with local, ‘picturesque’ traditions.27 In Albania, master planning, implying total control of urban projects, was the most commonly used tool of the Italian government.28 A new master plan was prepared by two Florentine architects, Gherardo Bosio and Fernando Poggi, who had also been posted in the Italian colonies in East Africa. Bosio’s architecture had a reputation for its awareness of local folklore and attention to the landscape within the ambit of the civilizing role of Italy in overseas colonies. Poggi’s prior work reflected the fundamental features of the Florentine culture of the epoch, character- ized by a fusion of minimalism and a search for national identity in architecture.29 The National Construction Archives of Albania contain more than 20,000 drawings from that era. Under this plan, a rigorous, functionalist approach prevailed.30 The architecture and urban design were clearly affected by dictatorship, as demonstrated by an obsession with sheer size, symmetry, and durable building materials and the employment of literal iconography for floor plans, elevations, or façade decorations.31 The boulevard was extended symmetrically on the other side (north) of the central plaza to connect the centre to a new train station, cutting through the complex but fragile structure of the Ottoman town. The avenues leading to the centre were further broadened for the purpose of serving pompous military parades.

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 The placement of new social, cultural, and administrative facilities along the boulevard, as elements of conquest and dominion, was done in accordance with the shape of the fascist fasces lictoriae (Figure 3). A prominent Italian architect, Vittorio Morpurgo-Ballio, designed a few buildings including the central bank in Skanderbeg Square and a large plaza (Piazza Lit- torio) at the southern end of the main boulevard. This plaza housed the Casa del Fascio, the headquarters of the fascist government. A luxury hotel was also built along the boulevard.32 The rationalist austerity of these structures was meant to convey the colonizers’ virtue, in addition to their greatness.33 By 1944, despite the war, the Italians completed a substantial portion of their plans for Tirana, which by then had become a city of 60,000 inhabitants.34 The Italian viceroy, Francesco Jacomoni di San Savino, commented in his memoirs that ‘[in 1936] thanks to our contribution, the former village had disappeared. Tirana had indeed become a livable capital city’.35 In the late 1930s, an Italian geographer noted, Planning Perspectives 75

Figure 3. Fascist projects for new buildings in the centre (top); along the axe-shaped boulevard (bottom); at the southern end of the boulevard – Casa del Fascio (right). Photos courtesy of the National Planning Archive and Istituto Luce.

[w]hile preserving much of the old town, i.e. from the Turkish era, in 1939 Tirana has radically transformed some of its quarters, has spread out and modernized more than any other Albanian city ...These transformations ...have caused signiﬁcant losses in the characteristic aspects of old Tirana; these losses have been compensated by a bit more order and hygiene, if not real aesthetic advantages.36

However, an Austrian traveller noted that life in Tirana went on much as it had done before the war, despite the Italian interventions in the centre.

Low houses remain unchanged since Turkish times, bazaars and half-decayed booths of artisans, there is a continued smell of donkey manure and rancid mutton fat, and where hens and pigs refuse to be disturbed by any mere pedestrian ...Everywhere people wear national costume. The old traditional patriarchal way of life has been destroyed but a new one suited to prevailing Alba- 37

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 nian circumstances has not yet been discovered.

The centre as the showpiece of the communist government After the war, Albania was taken over by an exceptionally repressive and isolationist communist regime, led by a local dictator, Enver Hoxha.38 It directed every facet of life and left indelible marks on Tirana’s urban fabric. As in other totalitarian states during the Cold War, the built environment was set to dominate, or suffocate, the masses, like dictatorship itself.39 Like other communist leaders and cult dictators,40 Hoxha set an agenda of grandeur and social engineering. Although Albania remained independent, Stalin’s Soviet Union constituted Hoxha’s primary model. In that model, a high degree of ideological signiﬁcance was attached to urban design by the leaders, and minimal deviating from aesthetic codes was allowed.41 Architects created 76 D. Pojani

‘palaces for the everyday man’ – isolated points of opulence in a wrecked country.42 Subjects were held together with public rituals rather than common political beliefs.43 Therefore, public space was designed to accommodate such rituals. Mystical areas were created for emotionally intense liturgies exalting and glorifying the regime, complete with parades, songs, flags, and fire- works that engaged all the senses.44 Idolatry, for example, the mummified corpse of Lenin in the Red Square, was used as a device to press the public into submissiveness.45 At the same time, a surgical scalpel was applied with brutal efficiency to the main city centres, particularly Moscow’s, in order to annihilate the artefacts of the pre-Soviet world. Religious buildings were a main target of the demolition fury.46 Vigorous political propaganda surrounded demolition and construction.47 Eastern European communist countries, which, like Albania, were not formally Soviet sat- ellites, showed similar signs of monomania. Major construction works often occurred in tandem with major demolitions of buildings from the pre-communist period. In the early 1980s, Roma- nia’s Ceausescu razed almost the entire historic district in Bucharest and replaced it with an 1100-room People’s House, and he destroyed large swathes to make way for huge boulevards that evoked Haussmann’s Paris.48 In Yugoslavia, Tito used the occasion presented by Skopje’s destructive earthquake in 1963 to create a new city, a sort of European Chandigarh or Brasilia, which was to become the spatial expression of a solidary socialist society. The new ideal city was designed by avant-gardist Kenzo Tange, who won a spectacularized competition against other high-calibre designers.49 In a 1948 speech, Albania’s Hoxha stated in regard to Tirana that a clean, well-lit, low, and verdant city must be created:

Tirana’s planning issues are of uttermost importance, for Tirana, as capital of Albania, must be of example to the other cities. Tirana must become the most beloved city of the people ...Tirana must be one of the cleanest cities ...Tirana must have bright lights ...Everything built must abide by the principles of our people’s regime. Buildings must be horizontal, not vertical: architects must respect our folk styles ...Attention must be paid to group administrative buildings in the center, in apposite places where they can serve and beautify the city. The streets of the capital must be wider, and maximal efforts must be made to create parks and gardens ...The whole city must resemble a garden, with shadow trees and fruit trees ...To achieve these goals we need devoted architects and engineers who will take [urban renewal] upon their honor.50

The redesign of the capital’s centre was to be the pie`ce de re´sistance of the government. In a Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 country with very limited resources, this major undertaking required countless sacrifices on the part of the population. Specific plans for the centre were drawn in 1963 and 1974, dismissing former plans as ‘bourgeois’. Consistent with communist planning approaches in other Eastern European countries, authorities wished to clear away as much of the past as costs permitted, in order to expulse capitalist remains. A prevailing principle was that, unlike Western city centres but similar to other communist centres, Tirana’s core should not include commercial activities. The centre had to appear monumental and solemn. According to a leading urban design textbook of the time, it must represent the ‘rebirth and powerfulness’ of the new Albanian state and serve the purpose of the ‘political edification’ of the population.51 The practice of religion was outlawed and many religious buildings were bulldozed, or converted to other uses. The Orthodox Cathedral was torn down. The demolition wave also elimi- nated non-religious historic and ethnic references in the centre, including the City Hall, the Planning Perspectives 77

traditional bazaar, and an old landmark cafe´. However, an exception was the small mosque, which was preserved as a museum. Also, the clock tower, the bank, the complex of ministries, and the large Piazza Littorio ensemble (which by then housed the Polytechnic University and the Art Academy) escaped demolition. In 1960, the bazaar was replaced with an austere, multi-functional Palace of Culture, a typical feature of Eastern European cities denoting the communist belief in science and education, for which Khrushchev laid the ﬁrst brick. During the 1970s, a massive National History Museum (replacing the old City Hall), and a monolithic hotel (replacing the Cathedral) were built next to the Palace of Culture. At 15 storeys, the hotel was the tallest building in Tirana for the next few decades. Along the main boulevard, in the direction of the Piazza Littorio, the National Art Gallery, the Palace of Party Congresses, the Party Central Committee seat, the Presidency seat, and the dictator’s museum (shaped as a pyramid and designed by Hoxha’s daughter and son-in-law, both architects), were built in the 1980s. The newer stretch of the boulevard on the other side was mostly lined with low- to mid-rise residential buildings (Figure 4). Most of these buildings bore the typical rigidity of Soviet architecture.52 Some had a bare functionalist style. As one well-respected architect assigned to work on the high-rise hotel later recalled in his memoir, this was due partly to the architects’ lack of exposure to international currents:

Year 1972 ...[T]he design for the big hotel in the center of Tirana was sensationally announced ... [Our design team] openly admitted a major shortcoming: We, the architects, had never seen a real tourist hotel. We took it up at the Directorate, at the Ministry. [A Politburo member] backed us up, and the Minister [ ...], an avowed hater of architects, cornered, said: ‘Fine, they can go to Yugo- slavia, but the trip budget will be minimal.’ ...[Later], due to my being ‘inﬂuenced by foreign architecture’, I was sent to ‘work with the people’, demoted to site supervisor ....53

However, Eastern European communist architecture and urban design was not unilaterally oppressive. Sections of the Communist Bloc included porosities or even channels of com- munication with the decried and fascinating Western world behind the barriers. The Congre`s International de architects moderne’s theories were widely adapted in the socialist realm.54 In some cases, for example, in Bratislava, monumentalism was interpreted by local ideologues as a conveyor of national emancipation from a long-time peripheral status.55 In

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 the centre of Tirana, too, a few of the later buildings showed a search for an autonomous language.56 On Skanderbeg Square their placement was perimetral, encompassing a vast and portentous expanse in the middle, mainly bare except for a small central fountain. A last intervention before the fall of the regime in 1990 was the erection of a mega-sculpture of the dictator on a raised platform, purposefully higher than the nearby equestrian sculpture of the historical national hero Skanderbeg, which had been placed in the plaza in the 1960s. The impersonal quality and size of the space thus created, reminiscent of de Chirico’s dis- quieting paintings, suited the government’s taste for kitsch parades and manifestations. The centre and the boulevard were heavily used by citizens for daily promenades because there were few alternative entertainment options. The sunken garden in front of the ministries was particularly attractive to families with small children. The centre was free of vehicular trafﬁc because private car ownership was prohibited in Albania. 78 D. Pojani Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015

Figure 4. From top: (a) 1960s model for the centre, with the Palace of Culture on top; (b) centre in the 1980s – the Palace of Culture on the left and the platform for Hoxha’s statue on the right; (c) centre in the 1980s – view of the National Museum on the left and the Palace of Culture on the right; (d) May Day parade along the boulevard. Photos courtesy of the National Planning Archive and National Library. Planning Perspectives 79

Notwithstanding stringent population movement controls, the capital’s population and geography grew substantially during communism, due to natural growth and industrialization. At the end of the 1980s, its urbanized area covered 12 square kilometres and its population had increased to almost 300,000.

The move to a market economy: marginalization and shift of the city centre In 1991, Albania began a transition from a dictatorship to a democracy and from a centralized, planned economy to a largely unregulated, free-market economy. This transition was marked by political chaos, economic polarization, and delegitimization of the law. As economic and insti- tutional systems dissolved in rural areas, the capital experienced massive in-migration. The political and economic transformations resulted in dynamic and chaotic development patterns, substantial formal and informal construction, densification and intensification of land uses, neglect of public space, and high demand for consumer goods, including private cars.57 Within two decades, Tirana more than doubled in population and surface area, to more than 850,000 inhabitants and 56 square kilometres. Controls over new development were minimal. A high volume of mid-rise apartment construction for the middle class filled the central areas of the city. Whole towns were constructed in the periphery without permits, mainly for migrants from the rural areas. In response to the absence of any available space for the myriad new small businesses (stores, restaurants, and offices) in the early 1990s, free-standing kiosks were built informally in the central square and along the boulevard and river. They were laid out haphazardly, following an entrenched tradition of oriental bazaars. As the owners’ profits improved and the fear of action from the authorities evaporated, many kiosks were converted into small but ‘permanent’ cement structures ranging up to a few storeys. Although kiosks injected vitality in the centre, their appearance was negatively perceived by most of the public (Figure 5). In 2002 to 2003, the City of Tirana initiated a ‘Clean and Green’ public programme, during which a large majority of kiosks were removed and the public spaces that they occupied were restored to their prior state. While the kiosk owners had promised to lead the city into anarchy if their kiosks were taken away, in reality the implementation of the programme was relatively smooth. Most businesses in kiosks simply relocated into legitimate buildings, which were by then more readily available. These small businesses, and others that followed, did much to revi-

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 talize formerly dormant areas. The originator of the ‘Clean and Green’ programme was a charismatic new mayor and former artist, Edi Rama, elected in 2000. A ﬂamboyant politician, Rama directed other successful urban renewal programmes. The most remarkable was ‘A Return to Identity’, which earned international fame. Under the programme, dull Stalinist buildings along the main streets were painted in bright, playful multicolour pastels. His projects contained a pedagogical aspect in the sense that they aimed to transform the relationship of city dwellers to their surroundings. Change in the built environment was translated into a political capital for Rama, who was twice re-elected. He received acclaim in the international media,58 as well as two prestigious international awards: the United Nations Poverty Eradication Award and the World Mayor Award. One of Rama’s famous statements was that ‘being the Mayor of Tirana is the highest form of conceptual art’.59 He described his relationship with Tirana and his urban planning staff as visceral: 80 D. Pojani

Figure 5. The centre taken over by kiosks in the early 1990s. Photo courtesy of CoPlan.

I have always had a few people as point of reference. Now it’s these architects. My project is them. And, to be frank, maybe it’s also to fulfill my own ego, to be identified with something big in the eyes of everybody. I know that this obsession I have to make a big work, this identification with this city – I know it makes problems for me with my family, my friends. But for me Tirana is a mirror, an affirmation, a confirmation of my vision, or call it will, or my person. This is something that comes from far away, like a destiny.60

Rama’s interventions into urban design are by no means unique among political leaders in democracies. For example, Mitterrand viewed his Grands Travaux in Paris (e.g. the Louvre Pyramid and La De´fense) as an essential part of his strategy to make the city the undisputed capital of modern Europe. His proclivity for pure geometric forms deﬁned the character of 61

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 these iconic landmarks. In 1981, Mitterand stated, ‘A civilization is judged by its architectural achievements. Will we be able to inscribe in space and sculpt in matter our cultural project? I’ll put all my energy into it’. During his administration, the ‘government fiat’ and the ‘president’s construction sites’ were the object of violent public battles, with local elected officials ironically noting that ‘the President might as well be nominated Mayor of Paris too’.62 Out of concern that the empty centre might end up flooded with ordinary apartment buildings as in the rest of the city, the City of Tirana put a moratorium on construction in the centre until an agreement was reached over further development. The centre, comprising Skanderbeg Square and the areas immediately next to it, as well as the boulevard, were assigned a protected landmark status (though publicly owned).63 Local authorities believed that the centre had to be a special, monumental place, charged with symbolism, rather than a business- and consumer- orientated activity space. Passing comments from visiting foreign architects and academics on the need to protect the built heritage in the centre fuelled this notion.64 Planning Perspectives 81

The creation of the Bllok While politicians planned for the centre, Tirana’s reviving business activity, heavily fuelled by remittances, targeted the nearby Bllok, which had been the gated residence area of the communist politburo. It had narrow roads in a grid pattern, mature trees, gardens, low old buildings, and a charming atmosphere. Developers gradually demolished most of the existing villas and built 10- to 12-storey mixed-use buildings at high densities (height limits applied). Cafe´s, restaurants, bars, and clubs with outdoor seating occupied the ground ﬂoors and remaining green areas. This redevelopment process, carried out entirely by the private sector, turned the Bllok into a vibrant, ‘hip’ entertainment district with plenty of shopping, eating, and music venues, packed with pedestrian activity until late at night. While the area was intensely developed, it retained an interesting mixture of heights, designs, and green spaces (Figure 6).65

Dreams to revive the centre: what to do about a dead centre in a lively city? While the Bllok evolved into a playground, the centre froze in time. In the 2000s, it looked essentially the same as in the 1980s, encircled by government building and faceless cultural Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015

Figure 6. Bllok, aerial view and street cafe´. Photos courtesy of Olli (top) and Blerta Kambo (bottom). 82 D. Pojani

centres. Commercial activities were virtually absent. No landscaping or weather protection features were provided, which are especially important during Tirana’s very hot summer months. (A few evergreen trees growing in Brasini’s sunken garden were cut down to render the ministry complex more visible.) At the same time, the circular road in the centre was flooded with cars. Traffic came from all directions, due to the fact that Skanderbeg Square is the converging point of all the city’s radial axes. Also the very wide boulevard became an eight-lane traffic barrier that divided the city. As a consequence, the centre and the boulevard entirely lost their appeal as a local destination, though occasionally they were used for political meetings.66 Concerned about the fading importance of the centre, the City government issued calls for international competitions in 2004 and 2008 to redevelop and redesign the space. The entire length of the boulevard was included in the scope of the first competition, which resulted in a ‘master plan’. The second competition was limited to Skanderbeg Square, leading to a detailed site plan. Funding for the first competition was provided by the German and Dutch governments via the German Organization for Technical Cooperation (GTZ). The second competition was financed through a grant from the government of Kuwait, which was particularly interested in the renovation of the mosque and the clock tower.67 These plans kindled fierce debates among stakeholders and the public. In many ways, these debates echoed the dominant discourses in other post-socialist cities, which are still grappling with place identity. Often, they are subjected to external processes of identity formation, which cast them as ‘Eastern other’. Meanwhile, the internal discourses of post-communist place identity reemphasize the ‘Europeanness’ of these localities through past links with Western Europe (e.g. looking back to a pre-communist Golden Age and revising history); a rejection of associations with the East and the socialist past (e.g. destruction of socialist-era statues, reconstruction of what has been destroyed by communist urbicide, or highlight- ing of anti-communist resistance); and internationalization or Westernization of their city’s identity (e.g. employing major international architects or building high-profile flagship projects).68 These strategies closely follow the experience of Western cities, which have drawn selectively on their pasts to create urban imagining of the present and the future.69 The Mayor of Tirana’s call for the 2008 competition revealed a desire to restore the square to its former greatness, and his conclusion that neutral outsiders were needed to provide a view not marred by the past:

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 [t]hrough [this space] has paraded the history of fascism, communism, and democracy. A space where manifestations beyond comparison were organized ...[Is this space] a chaotic [traffic] junc- tion or a plaza where we all can meet? Is it a square where ghosts and edifices of the past hold reign or where new architectural volumes can be erected that may lend a new dimension to the echoes of history? ...These are some of the questions, as yet unanswered, concerning this square where the history of the Albanian state ...was written. In order to find the answers, we need assistance from those that look at Skanderbeg Square from the outside, whose eyes have not been bloodied by the history we have lived through and are ...free of prejudices ...70

The competitions were proposed as a tool to bring Tirana closer to an ideal European city.71 The Mayor, as well as professionals, romanticized the Italian architecture of the interwar and World War II period, which provided Tirana with a European legacy.72 Meanwhile, the national history museum, the socialist hotel, and the Palace of Culture built during communism and the developments in the early post-communist transition were viliﬁed.73 Also, Tirana’s pre-communist, Planning Perspectives 83

oriental past was rejected. Prior to Rama’s appointment, Tirana was commonly referred to dero- gatorily as ‘Kandahar’ – a symbol of oriental backwardness.74 Some commentators argued that the emphasis on the European traits of Tirana was necessary to attract foreign investors, who had until then perceived it as an undesirable place for business.75 The competitions attracted attention within Albania and abroad, and took place with much fanfare and media coverage. Proposals were received from international celebrity architects, including Daniel Libeskind of New York and Winy Maas of the Netherlands. Juries were com- posed of renowned European architects and academics and were chaired by the Albanian Prime Minister. These events were reported with major enthusiasm by the press.76 However, the public was not involved in the selection process. Architecture Studio (AS) of Paris won the ﬁrst competition, and Brussels-based 51N4E won the second competition. Both presented typical examples of designer interventions (Figure 7). AS proposed the conversion of the centre into a pedestrian zone. Part of the open area in Skan- derbeg Square would be taken up by two new low-rise, transparent buildings in front of the National Museum, which would enclose a U-shaped plaza and ﬁguratively divide the city into two parts: the old, communist northern side and the new, democratic southern side. The plaza itself would be decorated with fountains and palm trees arranged in a formal manner. A commercial centre would be built behind the Palace of Culture to revive the historic marketplace tradition truncated earlier. An orthodox cathedral and a mosque would be built adjacent to the centre. A new tram line would stretch the length of the boulevard. Ten 25-storey towers Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015

Figure 7. AS’s plan (left) and 51N4E’s plan (right). Images courtesy of the City of Tirana. 84 D. Pojani

(skyscrapers by local standards) would fill the few remaining empty lots immediately outside Skanderbeg Square, which would symbolically watch over the centre. A high-rise tower would also be built in the courtyard of the National Museum. Behind the mosque and clock tower complex, an L-shaped, glass high-rise would semi-enclose and reflect the two landmarks, restoring the historic effect obliterated by an earlier 16-storey apartment building constructed in the background.77 The designers argued that high-rises were necessary from a compositional perspective, claiming, ‘We needed to make a big square. So [the towers] are [sic] as a frame. Here is not a Manhattan. What we propose is just a frame’.78 Similarly, 51N4E’s approach was to create an enclosed plaza. A flat pyramid79 would cover the surface of the square to symbolically place the users at a higher level in relation to the adjoin- ing communist-era buildings.80 Numerous water fountains with fluid shapes would be embedded on the pyramid faces. The designers explained that the hollow plaza would contrast with the city surrounding it, which they viewed as untidy and frenetic.

A very simple and clear gesture will have a very strong impact. The city is not deﬁned by its edges sprawling outwards, but by its core ...The city giving way, like if it holds its breadth for a moment. The square as a space where the bustle and the chaos stops ...The [green] belt functions like an antechamber to the main square: negotiating between the congestion of the city and the openness of the square ...The square will [provide] mental and physical space for its citizens.81

The purpose of the proposed plan extended beyond aesthetics and accommodation of daily activities, as noted by one of the foreign jury members: ‘[t]he competition asked for the squaring of the circle: it called for the symbolic manifestation of the new, democratic Albania ...[A] spirit of empathic catharsis ...underlies [this project]’.82 While an upscale shopping mall was proposed for the site where the dictator’s statue stood, 51N4E was against the inclusion of small-scale commercial activities in the square.83 It took the position that ‘ﬁlling the square with bars and restaurants, in an attempt to make a square on a human scale, would be the wrong answer to the right question. All of Tirana is already about consumption: consuming the square as well would be a political failure’.84 This position reﬂects the opinion of one portion of the professional community, which was that ‘temples that can go down in history’ were needed. A comment by a Kosovar architect illustrates that perspective:

Tirana is ugly because it lacks identity ...[Its] buildings lack symbolism ...Empedocles wrote that Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 Agrigentinos built homes and temples as if they were immortal, and ate as if every day was their last. Our cities too are full of assorted eateries ...which give the impression that Albanians are resolved to make up for the era of food rationing ...but nowhere have I seen temples that can go down in history!85

The first plan was approved, with a 30-year-long implementation plan reminiscent of the communist era. The legal status of the second plan remained unclear. Both plans relied on substantial private investment. The orthodox cathedral foreseen by the first plan was built, while a major international design competition (with the participation of iconic firms including Zaha Hadid and BIG) was held for the mosque, and construction has started. International competitions were held for 3 of the 10 skyscrapers as well, and the construction of two is under way. The reconstruction of Skanderbeg Square began in 2010, while no construction has begun on the tram line. Planning Perspectives 85

Skanderbeg Square magnified and dissected The press and political players became consumed by the debate about the plans. Acrimonious debates followed among professionals and the general public. Some commentators lauded the competition processes per se, as capable of mobilizing local dynamics and setting the basis for a fertile dialogue on the city’s future.86 However, the scale of the debate was out of pro- portion with the issues under consideration, while other pressing issues about the city’s infra- structure were ignored. Much of the siding in the debate was determined by political party affiliation or allegiance. Moreover, analysts attached bewildering symbolic significance to the various site design details. Despite the intense rivalry and mutual animosity between Mayor Edi Rama (political left wing) and Prime Minister Sali Berisha (political right wing), they clearly agreed on one point: Tirana’s centre was the most important space in the entire country and its redevelopment would have major implications for the identity of the Albanian people as a whole.87 Their offices were in neighbouring buildings in the centre. All sides focused the rhetoric on ‘Europeanness’, even when dealing with minute design details. The mayor stated that Tirana would have one of the most beautiful centres in Europe thanks to these plans,88 and the Albanian Architects Association applauded the perceived break with tradition.89 Some architecture professionals were content that the AS plan preserved the Italian boulevard axis,90 while 51N4E was criticized for interrupting this ‘city spine’ when placing buildings in Skanderbeg Square.91 Some of the criticism was directed at the strong emphasis on beautification, reducing the city from a complex social phenomenon into an abstract image condensed in the centre.92 In a secular culture, the proposal to add new, showy religious buildings near the centre was rejected by various political commentators mainly because of no recent precedents in European centres.93 The financial support of Islamic Kuwait was viewed with suspicion by others. The shallow pyramid proposed by 51N4E was denounced as a symbol of totalitarianism reminiscent of Hoxha’s museum, and even death.94 A proposal by the Prime Minister to hold street markets for souvenirs in the remo- delled square was ridiculed as anachronistic. Even the idea of amorphous water pools texturing the surface of the plaza produced negative associations, as it was a reminder to some of the pot- holes in deteriorating parts of the city. Some professionals and interest groups raised their voice against the lack of transparency and participation surrounding the process of selecting the winners.95 One of the jury members of the first competition later recalled in an interview that Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 the decision was political.96 The proposed conversion of the centre into a pedestrian zone posed critical challenges requiring public acquisition of privately owned land. Vehicular traffic would have to be rerouted into a small ring road around Skanderbeg Square. A short, north-eastern stretch of the ring road was incomplete and private buildings stood in the right of way. Land owners were not coopera- tive and the central government was antagonistic, refusing to release a fund for their compensation. Moreover, around 2010, the ruins from an old castle were discovered underneath the existing south-eastern segment of the ring road, thereby necessitating its realignment. That section was converted into a narrow pedestrian street, in order to expose the archaeological site (Figure 8). This complex situation led to criticism in terms of traffic circulation.97 However, it was the 10 skyscrapers proposed in the first plan that provoked some of the strongest disagreements. This might have been expected, due to the fact that there are no 86 D. Pojani

Figure 8. Small ring road perimeter. Image by author, based on map by Google Maps.

precedents of newly created, glossy and imposing Central Business Districts in post-communist Eastern Europe. Rather, this approach resembles contemporary mega-structuralism in China (e.g. Pudong in Shanghai), which has signed a departure from the Mao-era architecture around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. The ﬁrst three Tirana towers were branded with names such as ‘Eye of Tirana’ (inspired by the tower’s night-time glow), ‘Tirana International Devel- opment’ (TID), and ‘Forever Green’, which evoked trends and progress. Mayor Rama said, Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 ‘Popes put up obelisks. These towers will be our obelisks. They are acupunctural!’98 Some well-known professionals endorsed their construction, bringing forth similar artistic and ideological arguments: ‘[high towers] will help create an interesting skyline, which has been lost due to recent developments ...Without a vertical skyline, no capital city identity can be formed’.99 Detractors viewed the skyscrapers as a literal, aggressive invasion in a mid-rise city, as the following comments by two architects, the ﬁrst Albanian and the second Kosovar, illustrate:

[I] had never seen an architectural model that looked so much like Japanese anime. A mold with ten giants, half monsters and half robots, with heads full of pointy angles, which stomp over the city in military formation and smash with their humongous feet all smaller buildings in their way.100 Planning Perspectives 87

By planting itself where Enver Hoxha once stood, and by surpassing the height of the tallest building he built, a skyscraper will not liberate the Albanian society from the memory of the dictator’s personality cult.101

One renowned political analyst dubbed one of the towers, Eye of Tirana, a ‘Cyclops of Tirana’, remindful of the communist era:

The construction of this [Cyclops] ...brings to mind communist era memories: while the people lived in misery, to glorify itself and its leader the regime built in the center power ‘landmarks’ like this, which cost a fortune ...meanwhile, alas, destroying historic Tirana ...They want to have [ten] such Cyclops. Do we really need that many commercial centers ...to siphon money off the Albanians?102

A controversy related to TID’s design demonstrated that while Albania strives to underplay its muslim and communist pasts, these images persist in foreign visions.103 The initial façade designed by 51N4E included shading devices inspired by the Maghreb moucharabieh and the modernist brise-soleil. The local client found the façade ‘too Muslim’ and ‘too Communist’ and required its redesign.104 Some political analysts attributed the ideas behind these plans to the mayor’s personal ego and his ‘suffering from the “l’e´tat, c’est moi” syndrome’, like his predecessors.105 Others assigned his motives to financial interests more than to art, ego, or ideology.106 They saw the plans as a way for the mayor to line his pockets and fund his electoral campaigns with money from developers.107 From 2010 through 2011, the reconstruction of the square proceeded intermittently. One major hindrance was the incessant interference of, and creation of obstacles by, the central government (in political opposition with the mayor). Backed by the Institute for Heritage Protection, it requested various modifications of the site details, and, as mentioned earlier, refused to issue compensation funds.108 During the works, the centre was in disarray, the traffic – forced to temporarily circumvent the centre – was chaotic, and pollution levels were high. The City government was perceived as procrastinating. Partly due to this failed project, Rama’s image was tarnished and his popularity waned. In 2011, he lost his mayoral re-election campaign in a controversial battle. Immediately after taking office, the new mayor, Lulzim Basha, supported by the Prime Min- ister, suspended the works in the centre. His planning department hastily prepared a new, unpre- tentious site plan, which was executed within a few months. One noted journalist highlighted Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 this approach of scrapping the plans of an opponent as typical of the powerful in Tirana: ‘[Basha’s treatment of Skanderbeg Square] parallels his behavior towards the office he inherited. His first gesture was to remodel it ...He believes he will shake away the frustrating thoughts of stolen votes by reversing his predecessors’ deeds’.109 The new plan simply enlarged the sunken garden between the ministries to fill the empty area in front of the Palace of Culture and nar- rowed the vehicular rights-of-way. Car circulation was allowed back in the centre. The square regained its role as an oval traffic roundabout with a grass centre. The area where the dictator’s statue stood became a small park with fruit trees (Figure 9). Many were disappointed by this solution, which they saw as a final renunciation of the idea of a grand city centre. Woeful eulogies were written by high-level politicians, architects, and journalists.110 The nostalgia-driven search for identity and the desire to revive the past are understandable in places and times of insecurity, rapid change, and memory loss when communities 88 D. Pojani

Figure 9. Aerial view of the current centre. Photo courtesy of Alket Islami.

and traditions are shattered and fragmented. Many contemporary cities have made an effort to create urban landscapes that draw on memories in an attempt to authenticate themselves as sites and to authenticate the identities of those who visit them by placing them within a stabilizing and familiar past.111 However, a few other political analysts reluctantly admitted the futility of prior redesign exercises searching for a contemporary image. They noted that the centre had long lost its relevance as a meeting point in the city fabric. They also pointed out that, with the conversion

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 of Skanderbeg Square into a trafﬁc circle, Tirana was left with no spaces of citizenry for protest, debate, and celebration. They blamed Rama’s passion for ‘starchitectural gestures’ and developers’ bad faith for this outcome.112 In 2011, Mayor Basha promised that this solution was also temporary, and a new plan would come soon.113 The plan is still awaited. In June 2013, in a reversal of roles after losing the 2011 local elections, Edi Rama was elected Prime Minister.

Conclusion Like many centrally located public spaces, the centre of Tirana has served as a means of expres- sing political visions and ideologies. In the space of a century, it was transformed from an Ottoman market and prayer space to a scenographic colonial display, which included laic administrative buildings; to a monumental communist parade ground; to a post-communist anarchic Planning Perspectives 89

marketplace; and finally to a traffic roundabout surrounded by public office buildings, a bank, a large hotel, and a museum, but no human-scale spaces. These identities were imported from abroad (e.g. by hiring foreign designers or copying foreign styles), or were the result of trans- formational forces from abroad, such as military invasions or so-called cultural imperialism. The final outcome is poignant considering the intensive planning efforts and vigorous debates surrounding the development of this space, which implicated all levels of government, the private sector, the media elite, and ordinary citizens. Italian era plans for the centre required this space to be highly symbolic but still left the bazaar in place. Communist plans excluded market forces from all places. The new democratic-era plans ignored the market, which had come to dominate the society and its use of space. At the same time, the role of the government was diminished. Top-down planning, without top-down control and resources, was divorced from reality. The idea of a monumental central plaza with commerce set apart elsewhere was sure to fail. Without state compulsion there was no desire to visit a centre with no commercial, aesthetic, or recreational attractions. Under a pluralistic regime with no single vision and no tradition of compromise or cooperation between rival parties, plans failed also due to the division of power in the political system (between the mayor and the prime minister). A major dispute revolved around the proposed densification of the centre (disguised in modernizing garb), which was seen as a vehicle to financially benefit certain groups, to the exclusion or detriment of others. The long-term nature of the new plans left them exposed to political winds, which could change with each election. Tirana’s road pattern is such that all urban traffic converges in the centre. The construction of a small ring road circumscribing the centre to realign vehicular traffic required high levels of political goodwill, which the mayor was unable to gather. This was very unfortunate because the conversion of the centre into a pedestrian zone would have delivered tangible benefits to the city residents, in terms of air quality and liveability, regardless of the specific design details. This outcome also reflects the inability to deliver new designs in crucial spheres without wider changes in the urban structure (e.g. traffic management), which, however, may be difficult to achieve and/or may be strongly resisted by the public. Its development frozen, the centre was doomed to see its hub value vanish. While planners and politicians battled over the land uses and site design details of the centre, the Bllok (and other unplanned areas) flourished according to the market intuition of private developers, with little formal planning involved. In line with the nature of development in a market

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 economy – which is shaped and led by the private sector – this area thrived in terms of attrac- tion and economic vitality, while its heavily and ineffectively controlled counterpart languished. The chaos of the unplanned development in Tirana demonstrates that planning is needed while the failure of the central square plans demonstrates that planning must be grounded in reality.

Notes on contributor Dorina Pojani is a postdoctoral fellow in the Spatial Planning and Strategy group of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. She previously taught urban planning in Albania.

Notes 1. Kolevica, Arkitektura dhe Diktatura and Koha Jone 2010. 2. The research was undertaken in the National Library of Albania and the publishers’ online archives, where available. 90 D. Pojani

3. See debate between Lekbello 2012 and Tafaj 2012. 4. Castiglioni, “Tirana: Appunti sulla Capitale dell’Albania all’Alba del Nuovo Regime.” 5. Robinson, Albania’s Road to Freedom. 6. Aliaj, Lulo, and Myftiu, Tirana, the Challenge of Urban Development. 7. Todorova, Balkan Identities and Pantelicˇ, “Designing Identities.” 8. Hastaoglou-Martinidis, “Urban Aesthetics and National Identity.” 9. See van der Wusten, “Dictators and their Capital Cities”; Sonne, Representing the State; Vale, Architecture, Power, and National Identity. 10. After the Albanian national hero, Skanderbeg, a 15th-century Albanian lord who organized a resistance movement against the Ottoman expansion [author’s note]. 11. Frashe¨ri, Shqipe¨ria Ç´ Ka Qene¨,Ç´ E¨ shte¨ eÇ´ Do te¨ Be¨het. 12. Among his achievements were the abolition of polygamy and the outlawing of muslim women’s veil. 13. Godoli et al., “The Presence of Italian Architects in Mediterranean Countries.” 14. Qyqja 2009. 15. Santoianni, “Il Razionalismo nelle Colonie Italiane 1928–1943.” 16. Driver and Gilbert, “Imperial Cities” and Vale, Architecture, Power, and National Identity. 17. Wright, cited in Jenkins 1999. 18. Cohen and Eleb, Casablanca. 19. Capolino “Tirana, a Capital City Transformed by the Italians.” At the time, Italy too had abandoned futurism and was experiencing a return to the Novecento Italiano in architecture and the arts – see Sampo`, “Perspectives on Modern Movement’s Architectural Heritage of the Early XX Century in Western Balkans.” 20. Aliaj, Lulo, and Myftiu, Tirana, the Challenge of Urban Development. 21. Bleta, Influences of Political Regime Shifts on the Urban Scene of a Capital City. 22. Giacomelli and Vokshi, Architetti e Ingegneri Italiani in Albania. 23. Bleta, Influences of Political Regime Shifts on the Urban Scene of a Capital City. 24. Millon, “Some Smaller Italian Cities.” 25. Baxa, Roads and Ruins. 26. Nicoloso, Mussolini Architetto and Ciucci, Gli Architetti e il Fascismo. Architettura e Citta` 1922– 1944. 27. Giacomelli and Vokshi, Architetti e Ingegneri Italiani in Albania. 28. Giacomelli and Vokshi, Architetti e Ingegneri Italiani in Albania. 29. Godoli et al., “The Presence of Italian Architects in Mediterranean Countries.” 30. Capolino, “Tirana, a Capital City Transformed by the Italians.” 31. Sudjic, The Edifice Complex. 32. Sampo`, “Perspectives on Modern Movement’s Architectural Heritage of the Early XX Century in Western Balkans.”

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 33. Giacomelli and Vokshi, Architetti e Ingegneri Italiani in Albania. 34. Menghini, Pashako, and Stigliano, Architettura Moderna Italiana per le Citta` d’Albania. 35. Quoted in Lekbello 2012. 36. Castiglioni, “Tirana: Appunti sulla Capitale dell’Albania all’Alba del Nuovo Regime.” 37. Quoted in Vickers, The Albanians. 38. Hoxha’s communist allies were in turn, Yugoslavia (1950s), the Soviet Union (1960s), and China (1970s). Eventually, he cut relations with them due to their introduction of more liberal policies, and by the 1980s Albania became fully isolated. 39. Abensour, “De la Complicidad.” 40. Nizan, “Du Probleme de la Monumentalite´ – 1934.” 41. van der Wusten, “Dictators and their Capital Cities.” 42. McKernan, “Politics and Architecture.” 43. Ibid. 44. Hobsbawm, “Foreword.” 45. Arentd 1958. Planning Perspectives 91

46. Colton, Moscow. 47. Miller Lane 1968; Aman, Architecture and Ideology in Eastern Europe during the Stalin Era; Crowley and Reid, Socialist Spaces. 48. Sudjic, The Edifice Complex. 49. Tolic, Dopo il Terremoto. 50. Hoxha, “Nga Fjala e Mbajtur ne¨ Komisionin e Ngritur pe¨r Çe¨shtjen e Urbanizmit te¨ Qytetit te¨ Tirane¨s dhe te¨Qyteteve te¨Tjera te¨Vendit, 19 shkurt 1948.” 51. Faja, Urbanistika. 52. Sivignon, “Tirana et l’Urbanisation de l’Albanie.” 53. Kolevica, Arkitektura dhe Diktatura. 54. Aman, Architecture and Ideology in Eastern Europe during the Stalin Era. 55. Popescu, “Introductory Argument.” 56. Sampo`, “Perspectives on Modern Movement’s Architectural Heritage of the Early XX Century in Western Balkans”; Kolaneci 2008. 57. Pojani, “Tirana. City Profile.” 58. See Kramer 2005; Winner 2006; Mansfield 2006; de Campo 2002; Vlahou 2002; Arosio 2003; Boeri 2005; and Fink 2006. 59. Cited in Cuyvers 2004. 60. Quoted in Kramer 2005. 61. Sudjic, The Edifice Complex. 62. Chaslin, Les Paris de François Mitterrand. 63. However, a low-rise luxury hotel and two high-rise office towers in the southern stretch of the boulevard were speculatively built in the 1990s and early 2000s, respectively. Along the more residential northern stretch, too, some new construction filled gaps between buildings. 64. Lila 2008a and 2008b. 65. Apart from the Bllok, no new, distinct centres appeared. 66. Velo 2004. While the “dead center” phenomenon is not unique to Tirana (i.e. North American CBDs are often described as “urban deserts” that shut down after business hours), in this case it was created by specific government policies, or lack thereof, rather than citizens’ election to abandon this space. 67. On the occasion, the Emir of Kuwait became an honorary citizen of Tirana. 68. Young and Kaczmarek, “The Socialist Past and Postsocialist Urban Identity in Central and Eastern Europe”; Temelova 2007; Manoliu and Fartatescu, “Dream or Nightmare”; Marcuse, “Reflections on Berlin”; Gittus, “Berlin as a Conduit for the Creation of German National Identity at the End of the Twentieth Century.” However, some cities are acknowledging their totalitarian heritage, as demonstrated by the growth of “communist heritage tourism” (or, “red tourism” in China); various forms of nostalgia for that period are emerging. 69. The issue of post-communist demolitions mirrors the on-going discourse in Tirana surrounding current plans to tear down the dictator’s museum, Piramida, which is shaped as a pyramid. In pro-

Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 16:40 19 February 2015 posing the demolition, the Prime Minister (ill-advisedly) claimed that the building had been meant as the dictator’s mausoleum (containing his embalmed body). Piramida is in fact a major landmark and its function has changed several times since the fall of communism. Press articles by design professionals and political analysts opposing the demolition were summarized in a book – see Klosi and Lame 2011, also Lame 2011. 70. Quoted in 51N4E 2011. 71. Greca and Koc¸i 2008. 72. An irony, given that the fascist heritage is not considered the most valuable in Italy. 73. Triantis, “Urban Change and the Production of Space”; see also Dervishi 2010. 74. Kramer 2005; Winner 2006. 75. Triantis, “Urban Change and the Production of Space.” 76. Ke¨llic¸i 2003. 77. AS 2004. 78. Tisnado, one of the project designers, quoted in Durmishi, “Competing Urban Visions for the Capital of Albania.” 92 D. Pojani

79. Base: 160 × 160 m; height at apex: 2.25 m. 80. Reported in Fevziu 2010. 81. 51N4E 2008. 82. Ruby, cited 51N4E 2011. 83. Fevziu 2010. 84. 51N4E 2008. 85. Ndreca 2005. 86. Triantis, “Urban Change and the Production of Space”; Velo 2004; Velo 2012. 87. Rama 2010; BalkanWeb 2010. 88. Rama 2011. 89. Jano 2003; Jano 2004. 90. See Rama 2004; Jano 2004; Fevziu 2004; Durmishi, “Competing Urban Visions for the Capital of Albania.” 91. See Faja 2008 and 2010. 92. Triantis, “Urban Change and the Production of Space”; Cuyvers 2004; Tafaj, quoted in Kuçi 2010. 93. See debate between Klosi 2003 and Plasari 2003. 94. Faja 2008. 95. Sopoti 2004; Tafaj 2010; Bozdo 2010. 96. Zenghelis, quoted in Durmishi, “Competing Urban Visions for the Capital of Albania.” 97. See comments of the urban planning advisor to the Prime Minister, cited in Shqip, April 11, 2010. 98. Quoted in Kramer 2005. 99. Biçoku 2005. 100. Agalliu 2004. 101. Llonçari 2005. 102. Lubonja 2005. 103. Hall, “Representations of Place.” 104. Bineri, “‘Negative’ Cultural Heritage.” 105. Plasari, quoted by Lubonja 2004; Kadilli 2010. 106. Tema, August 15, 2003; Tema, August 13, 2003. 107. Lubonja 2010; Baze 2005; Zaimi 2010. 108. Xhaferri 2010; Stefani 2010; Bogdani 2010; Vata 2010; Shqip, April 11, 2010. 109. Baze 2011. 110. Lame 2010 and 2011; Mullaj 2011; Ypi 2011. 111. Dickinson, “Memories for Sale.” 112. Vehbiu 2011; Lubonja 2011; Stefani 2010; Zaimi 2010. 113. Panorama, August 5, 2011.

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